The unknown author of the famous and unique manuscript,
bequeathed by Major Price, the eminent Orientalist, to the Asiatic
Society, which has formed the subject of so much discussion among
the learned, parades his own chess prowess, in a manner not
unworthy of some great chess exponents of the present age. "And
many a one," he says in his preface, "has experienced a relief
from sorrow and affliction in consequence of this magic recreation";
and this same fact has been asserted by the celebrated physician
Muhammad Zakaria Razi, in his book entitled: "The Essence of
Things": "And such is likewise the opinion of the physician Ali
Bin Firdaus, as I shall notice more fully towards the end of the
present works, for the composing of which I am in the hope of
receiving my reward from God, who is Most High and Most
Glorious."
The philosopher continues: "I have passed my life since the
age of fifteen years among all the masters of chess living in my
time, and since that period till now, when I have arrived at middle
age, I have travelled through Irak Arab, and Irak Ajam, and
Khurasan, and the regions of Mawara al Nahr (Transoxania), and
I have there met with many a master in this art, and I have played
with all of them, and through the favour of Him who is Adorable
and Most High I come off victorious.
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